Powerhouse Museum resists push to move it to Sydney's west

The Powerhouse Museum would move to Parramatta under a radical proposal to boost the cultural offerings outside central Sydney.

Infrastructure NSW, the body responsible for setting the direction for major projects across the state, wants to uproot at least some of the museum's collection from its current Ultimo base, under a 20-year plan to be handed to the state government next month.

Barney Glover: The University of Western Sydney is keen to boost its relationship with the museum. Photo: Gene Ramirez

"We would be really open to considering something [in western Sydney], but it would need to be a satellite from this site, and a feasibility [study] needs to be done on what that might be."

The Powerhouse Museum opened at its Ultimo site in 1988. It is one part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, which also comprises Sydney Observatory and the Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill.

Advertisement

According to its latest annual report, there were more than 381,000 visitors to the Ultimo museum in 2012/13. This was 17.6 per cent below its 10-year average.

Ms Hiscock said the museum's current location – in close proximity to Sydney's tourism centre, educational institutions and digital start-ups – was "vital" to its future plans, set out in a 2020 strategy released this year.

She said establishing a new interactive science centre as a secondary western Sydney location for the museum would be a better idea, noting Melbourne's Scienceworks operated as a venue of Museum Victoria.

"It's not about one or the other, it's really about both and strengthening both and strengthening the opportunity of a cultural mix."

But David Borger, the Western Sydney director of the Sydney Business Chamber, said the Powerhouse was an institution that served a domestic more than an international market, and moving it would be a huge boon for Sydney's west.

"More than 90 per cent of all arts funding is spent in the CBD and the two million people in western Sydney do find it difficult to get into Sydney for many of these things," he said.

"And the fact is it's on a constrained site at the moment, there's a great opportunity with the University of Western Sydney building a new campus in the middle of the Parramatta CBD to partner with the Powerhouse Museum to deliver programs around learning and science education."

The University of Western Sydney's vice-chancellor, Barney Glover, said he was ready to develop stronger ties with the Powerhouse if it made the move.

"I think there is a way of enhancing our programs and our courses that could benefit from a link to a museum such as the Powerhouse," he said.

Professor Glover said he liked to think that the "entire" museum could move somewhere like the Parramatta CBD.

"I think you could find a location that would give great access to a growing part of the greater Sydney population," he said.